10'2" x 16'6" Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Oversize Medallion | Red & Navy Wool

Very few rugs carry a long formal room the way this one does. At 10'2" x 16'6" it is a true salon length, and the weaver put his name in a small cartouche at one end, which on a Persian Kashan rug of this scale tells you it left a named workshop rather than a village loom. The pile is fine wool at a healthy 3/8", the foundation is cotton, and the condition is excellent, with even pile from end to end and clean drawing intact in all 4 corners. Genuine oversize Persian rugs in this exact proportion are hard to find, because looms this wide were only strung for commissioned work. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a lobed navy medallion with an ivory inner panel built around an 8 petal rosette, finished top and bottom with slender pendant finials that reach into the field. Quartered versions of the same medallion sit as deep navy spandrels in the 4 corners, and the space between them is filled edge to edge with an allover garden of palmettes, rosettes, serrated leaves and curling vine, none of it repeating carelessly. The main border runs on navy with a rhythm of palmettes joined by scrolling vine, flanked by narrow light blue and ivory guard stripes that carry small paired flowerheads. Look at the reverse in the detail photo and the knots are small, tight and perfectly aligned, which is why the curved lines of the medallion and the vine scrolls stay smooth at this size instead of stepping.

A Deep Madder Red Field Lit by Navy and Ivory

The field is a deep madder red with a faint warmth to it, the kind of red that reads brick under daylight and closer to wine under lamps. Against it the indigo navy of the medallion, spandrels and main border gives the composition its weight, while ivory does all the drawing work, outlining the medallion core, the guard stripes and the petals so the pattern stays legible across 16 feet. Inside the flowers sit the supporting tones: a clear sky blue in the rosettes and the inner guard band, a soft sage and olive green in the leaves, gold and camel in the vine tips, and touches of blush pink and rose in the smaller blossoms. It is a red and blue rug at 10 paces and a 6 color rug at arm's length.

Kashan, the Weaving City of Central Persia

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that produced some of the most celebrated carpets ever woven. The local wool is soft and lustrous, which is why a Kashan takes color so deeply and keeps a low sheen as it ages, and the classic formula seen here, a red field, a navy lobed medallion and matching spandrels, is the design the city is known for worldwide. It is also the rug most Americans have already seen without naming it: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. A signed piece at this width means a master weaver and a commissioned loom, and the tight, even back on this example shows the standard that workshop held itself to.